Research Projects

Thin films with high electrical conductivity and visible light transparency have potential optoelectronic applications. sn doped In2O3 (ITO) has dominated the industry for the past 50 years, used in LEDs, solar cells, and electrochromic windows. However, the demand for solar energy generation has increased, leading to a search for other transparent conducting materials. Doped ZnO thin films are considered a promising alternative to ITO. stoichiometric ZnO is transparent in the visible wavelength range but has poor electrical conductivity. High conductivity can be achieved by achieving a non-stoichiometric composition or incorporating suitable dopants. Trivalent cationic dopants like B, Al, Ga, and In are mostly used in ZnO. However, the effect of anionic dopants is less found in literature. Researchers opt for a codopant (cation or anion) to achieve higher resistivity in ZnO compared to vacuum-based physical methods. Zns is also promising for their suitability as transparent conducting material. Developing p-type transparent conducting materials (TCMs) is crucial to meet the ambitious transparent electronics market projections. This project aims to synthesize a TC material based on ZnO and Zns suitable for electronic devices using chemical spray pyrolysis, which has advantages like low cost set-up, non-vacuum conditions, and ease of doping. Process parameters, such as substrate temperature, carrier gas, solvents, dopant properties, dopant concentration, deposition environment, and post-deposition environment temperature, will be varied to yield better optical transparency and electrical conductivity comparable to ITO.